


Noble Accoutriments

by Truthmaker



Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Fobbed up, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-21 23:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Truthmaker/pseuds/Truthmaker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Donna lies dying, victim of an alien attack.  And then something wonderful happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Noble Accoutriments

**Author's Note:**

> Written a long time ago (somewhere around season 4). Originally posted on LJ.

Martha realized immediately that they were too late. She’d witnessed enough battle wounds in her time with UNIT to recognize that Donna would not survive hers. She had seen over the past few days the effects those weapons had on the human body. Shriveled arms and destroyed legs signified the lucky ones; a shot to the torso was almost always fatal. Donna had been hit with a glancing blast to the chest, but it was more than enough. It was only a matter of time, but it did not matter. Donna was her friend and she would do everything she could to save her.

Jack looked on silently as Martha tried to stop the blood flowing from the woman’s chest. While he’d sent Ianto and Gwen to restore power to the Hub, he himself felt helpless. Medicine, the saving of lives had never been his thing. He was a soldier, point him at an enemy and he would kill it. But even he could not kill death.

“You stay with me Donna Noble,” Martha muttered as she worked. “The Doctor will never forgive me if I let you die.” Donna made no response except to roll her head from one side to the other.

Jack was lost in the image before him. Flashes on Owen, with the life draining from him, clouded his vision. It took a moment for the words being spoken to penetrate Jack’s clouded mind. ‘Noble’ Martha had called her, ‘Donna Noble.’ He’d heard that name before, seen it somewhere, but with all the chaos of the last few days he could not place it. 

“Doctor?” Jack asked of the man beside him. “Tell me about this new friend of yours.”

The Doctor’s look of concern melted into a mask of annoyance. “Jack this is hardly the time to be looking for dates.”

“Seriously Doctor, I need to know. Who was… Who is she?” Jack hoped his slip of the tongue had gone unnoticed but the dark look the Doctor directed his way told him otherwise.

The Doctor stared Jack down for another few seconds then shifted his gaze back to Donna. “Donna Noble. Daughter of Sylvia and Geoff Noble, Granddaughter of Wilfred Mott, almost married to Lance Bennett, savior of the world, and fighting for her life in the medical bay of your hub.” The Doctor looked up from Donna and stared straight at Jack, “You can get the rest of the details from her.”

Jack appeared too lost in thought to notice the Doctor’s stare. “Sylvia Noble,” he mumbled. “Sylvia Noble of Chiswick… This is Sylvia Noble’s daughter…”

A look of recognition bloomed upon Jack’s face and he bolted for his office. “Just keep her alive for a few more minutes,” he shouted over his shoulder as he ran.

For a few moments Martha continued working the silence of the bay broken only by the regular beeps of the medical equipment. The anguish showing on her face telling the Doctor all he needed to know about his present companion’s chances. Donna was drifting now, passing in to and out of consciousness. It was only a matter of time.

Jack returned, as he always did, with a flourish though his usual grin was replaced with a somber expression befitting of the current crisis. He took the small staircase in a single jump and came to a stop at Martha's side. 

It was not that Martha had failed to notice Jack’s return but with all her attention upon her patient the event had failed to register. Her first acknowledgement on Jack’s presence was when he turned Donna’s hand and placed a small object, which appeared to be a medallion on a chain, into her now upturned palm. Memories of Owen and the resurrection glove Jack used on him flooded Martha’s mind but before she could remove this obviously alien tech Jack was trying to use on her patient he pushed her away.

Jack was greatly relieved to see that death had not yet taken Miss Noble. He reverently turned her palm up and placed the locket he had retrieved from secure storage in it. He sensed more than saw Martha make a grab at the locket and pushed her away, a little too hard perhaps but this was too important to be interrupted. Jack pressed the latch allowing the locket to fall open as he whispered a near silent prayer, “Remember… please.”

The blue glow from the locket took only a second to dissipate, arcing as it did in a near perfect half circle terminating in Donna’s eyes. Then all hell broke loose.

As soon as Martha regained her footing she threw herself at Jack knocking him clear of her patient. She returned to her place at Donna’s side but the damage was done. The ember of life she had been working to rekindle had extinguished. The stead beeps of the medical equipment replaced with a single sad tone. She had failed and now Donna was gone.

Martha turned toward Jack, intent to channeling all her anger and frustration into him for interrupting her. One look at his face stopped her. The sadness it showed told her he already accepted Donna’s death as his fault. Martha could not bring herself to add her accusations unto those Jack himself had already lain upon his soul. Her anger, bereft of an outlet, dissolved into anguish and she hardly noticed as Jack’s gathered her up and provided the shoulder to catch her tears.

The Doctor had noticed nothing of the exchange between his two former companions. His gaze lie fixed on Donna as it had been since the strange blue light had grounded itself inside her. He stood silently willing, perhaps even praying, for a sign. He searched for some signal of what had come to pass. Finally he smiled, it had begun.

Martha did not notice the light at first, eyes heavy with grief. By the time she was aware of it had filled the entire chamber brightly enough that she had to squint. She did not doubt the light would be blinding were its source not behind her. The glow seemed familiar and it took her a moment to place but when finally she did a smile crossed her face shaking the tears away.  
Gwen saw the light emanating from the medical wing as soon as she reached the main room of the Hub but even at her fastest sprint she could not reach the bay before the light was extinguished. What she found there made no sense. The Doctor, Jack’s Doctor, was smiling from ear to ear. Martha and Jack were embracing in a way that would probably make Ianto uncomfortable if he were here and practically glowing with joy themselves. And Donna whom they had carted in, barely alive, was different… somehow. It was on Donna, she noted, that everyone else had fixed their gaze. It took her a moment but her brain began to register what had changed on the injured woman. Her clothes which had seemed well fit when they had first met a few hours before now seemed to drape on her slim form. Changed too was Donna’s hair, the crimson locks replaced with a dark brown hue. It was the face, though, that was the most striking. It bore little resemblance to the one Gwen had first seen earlier that day. In fact, were she not wearing the same outfit Gwen would have doubted that this woman was in fact Donna. It did not make sense.

“What happened?” Gwen asked as Ianto finally joined her at the rail.

It was the woman on the table who responded as she sat up slowly. “Change, it seems, and not a moment too soon.”


End file.
